Robotics teams continue to excel at state and world level

by Dan Holland

The nationally recognized Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School and BBH Middle School robotics teams continued their dominance in a variety of competitions during the 2025-2026 school year. The high school and middle school teams, respectively, won consecutive fifth and sixth state championships. Six of the eight high school teams and three of the eight middle school teams also competed in the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship held at the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis, Missouri, held April 21-30.

Regular season

The high school teams competed in nine local events, which includes Ohio teams, and four signature events, which includes teams from around the country. During the season, the team won a combined seven Excellence Awards, had 11 tournament champions and eight tournament finalists. They also won five skills championships and won 18 additional judged awards.

The middle school teams competed in four local events and one signature event during the regular season, producing four tournament champions, one tournament finalist, one skills champion and eight judged awards.

State Tournament

All eight high school teams competed in the 2026 VEX V5RC High School Ohio State Championship held at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, held during the first week of March, which hosted more than 200 teams. For a second consecutive year, three of the four teams making it to the finals were from BBHHS.

State winners included 2011B (BlastOff), who won the championship along with the Excellence Award and the Skills Challenge – known as a “Triple Crown.” Team 2011F (FazeClan) and 2011J (Jester) also competed in the finals. Team 2011A (Apex) won the Think Award, and 2011K (Kinetic) won the Build Award.

Among the middle school teams, 2011W (Wildfire) was a Tournament Semifinalist, and 2011S won the Design Award.

World Championships

The Bees have had the most teams qualify for the world tournament for three of the last four years, with all teams advancing to the division brackets during the competition, including Team 2011J, who made it to the division finals round this year.

The competition featured more than 2,200 teams from nearly 60 countries competing across 10 divisions.

Coaches’ take

“An organization goal is always to qualify as many teams as possible, which requires collaboration with each other and teams from other schools,” explained BBHHS Robotics Head Coach Craig Kowatch. “Qualifying for World’s is the culmination of the hard work during the season, and I love seeing the kids get something tangible from of all their hard work.”

“Each team sets goals every year, and those goals impact how I coach,” he added. “Some teams’ goals were to make and/or win Worlds. I want to create the right mindset for the kids to achieve those goals and also make sure the kids know their efforts were worthwhile if the ultimate goals were not achieved.”

Kowatch’s son, Casey, coaches the middle school team.

“I really leave the goals up to the teams in letting them figure out where and how they fit, and then support them in their thoughts and choices,” said Casey Kowatch. “Overall, I hope the experience shows them and prepares them for what their efforts can bring as they move into high school and beyond.”“At the middle school level, we don’t emphasize results, but want students to learn, build a team culture and work together,” he added. “While I’m ecstatic about the results, I am more pleased with the kids’ growth while in the robotics program. This is about seeing what the students’ hard work and effort can culminate in, along with preparing them to strive for future success after getting a taste of current success.”

Photo caption: One of the winning middle school teams shows off its banners, depicting the honors the team earned at the state championship. Photo submitted.